Mending Wounds
by AlwayzWriting
Summary: Squid is the only one who doesn't want to go home, thinks there's nothing there for him but an alcoholic mother. When he gets there though, his mom is in AA, his dad's back home and his best friend who he thought had abandoned him is in the hospital in a coma. What will happen when Allison finally wakes up. I don't own anything Holes.
1. Chapter 1

Squid cared about exactly one other person, Allison Tage. Cared about her so much that he ended up in Camp Green Lake for her. At first he'd been worried when his letters went unanswered thinking that maybe that scumbag hadn't learned his lesson, but as time went on he just came to feel that maybe his friend wasn't really his friend after all. When they closed down the camp he could only roll his eyes, no one would care that he was home, or so he thought.

Turned out that when he came home the only thing he had previously though impossible was happening. His dad had come home, and his mom was attending A.A.

"I bet you'll want to go to the hospital and see your little friend, won't you?" Friend? "What was her name?" His mom muttered pulling out her car keys.

"Allison?" What was she talking about?

"That's right, poor thing ended up in the hospital not long after you got sent away. Doctors said she was very lucky." His mom led him out to the car and they made their way to see Allison.

"How could she have been in the hospital all this time?" Squid asked.

"Oh, Alan, she's been in a coma. She was in an accident, wrecked her car up pretty good, she's been comatose ever since." He felt all of two inches tall. All this time he'd thought she didn't care about him, but she wasn't even conscious.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Squid demanded.

"How do you put something like this in a letter, and I didn't have the phone number for the camp and was too drunk to bother getting it."

He closed the door to the hospital room and walked over to Allison, looking at all the monitors and wires hooked up to her. On the bedside table there was a stack of envelopes, looking at the address he saw they were all the letters he wrote her. Carefully checking the postage date on them he grabbed the last one he sent and stuck it in his pocket, then slipped his hand in hers, looking up at the brain monitor.

"Hey Tazer." Squid whispered around the lump in his throat. "I'm home, you can wake up now." No change. "Come on, you're no fairy tale princess and I sure as shit ain't no prince charming, so you can forget about some true love's kiss." Still nothing. Sighing he sat down and pulled out the very first letter he had written to her and began to read aloud: "Tazer, this place sucks. There is no lake, just some old town looks like something from 'Little House on the Prairie' without the prairie. There's nothing here but sand and heat, and holes. Holes everywhere, and tomorrow I begin adding a few of my own. Five feet deep, five feet wide. I'm in a tent with some interesting guys, one everyone calls Armpit because he smells so bad, then there's this guy X-Ray, he seems to be the leader and claims he sees everything. What really sucks about this place though is that they took my smokes. Said they were contraband. I think Mr. Sir – I know I laughed too- wanted to smoke them himself. I've been sucking on this toothpick ever since and the guys have started calling me Squid because of it. Honestly though I kind of like it."


	2. Chapter 2

_Five years earlier_ Ten-year-old Alan walked out of his house where his mom was already hitting the bottle. Ever since his dad left a month ago it seemed like all his mom did was drink. He found himself at the school by the football field watching the high school team practice.

"Hi-ya." A voice called nearby. He turned and saw a small girl a couple feet away. "Whatcha doing?" She asked tilting her head to the side.

"Nothing." He replied grumpily, the girl sat down next to him and he sighed, couldn't she see he didn't want to be bothered?

"I'm Allison, I just moved here."

"Whoopie." Alan replied sarcastically. Allison scowled then lightly hit his arm.

"Come with me, I got something that'll make you feel better." For some reason even though he thought he wanted to be alone, Alan followed her under the bleachers, where she climbed up the metal bracers holding the seats up, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"What the? Where'd you get those?"

"My brother bought them for me."

"Do your parents know?" He asked as she lit one up.

"My mom left a long time ago, and my dad is always working." She passed the cigarette to him. "Don't inhale until you're used to it." Allison warned. Alan nodded, then sucked on the end of it and made a face as he blew the smoke out. It tasted terrible, but he had to admit he felt like a bad-ass sitting under the bleachers, smoking. "What's your name?"

"Alan Smith." He replied smiling, taking another drag.

"What were you doing out here?"

"Getting away from my mom, she's drunk."

"That sucks." Allison hooked her legs under the bar she was sitting on and hung upside down. "What's there to do around here?"

"Little kids like to go to the school playground and play on the jungle gym. The bigger kids hang out at this old rundown house." He told her thinking about it. "We could go swimming."

"Ok." She somehow managed to move easily down the bracers and was on the ground before he could get untangled. The two split up to go to their houses and fetch their bikes, then met back at the school and he eagerly showed her to the river where they could go swimming all alone. When they got there, he blushed, realizing that in their excitement neither of them brought their swimsuits.

"Oh well." Allison said shrugging, then took off her jeans and jumped into the water in her panties and T-shirt. Alan blushed again then followed her lead. They spent hours playing in the water, only stopping for a smoke, and temporarily forgetting their shitty homes, until it started getting dark and they had to go home. "See you tomorrow." She called, then made her way to her house. Alan smiled feeling like everything was going to be ok for the first time in a month. When he came home, his mom was passed out but still somehow that didn't bother him.


End file.
